The problem with science

I think the problem is not with science, but with the entire 1st world civilisation.

Science is great and I don’t fundamentally disagree with any of it – but it doesn’t have any guiding moral or ethical principles. One problem with science right now is that scientists invent things without thinking through all of the possible consequences. And then some kind of “revenge effect” inevitably bites them in the arse later on down the track.

Another big problem is that businesses can take hold of any scientific discoveries and innovations they feel like and just exploit them for all they are worth.

So we know that this society will all too willingly absorb any new scientific knowledge into profitable new enterprises. Well ok – not so big a deal you might say – and it’s not. That’s the benefit of science. Right? Yes.

But then when those same scientists turn around and say: “No, now you are all going to have to change the way you do things, because we’ve figured out that this is not a sustainable industry” or “it turns out there’s this horrible side-effect”, no one listens. Not the people working for the industries, nor the people buying products from whatever those industries happen to sell.

So basically everyone is using the results of science whenever it suits them, and they are not heeding many of the warnings that science is giving…

People willingly accept, take and use the scientific discoveries. But the very same people never as willing to relinquish those very same inventions. Are they?

So yes, I am going to repeat myself, just in case people are skim-reading this:
I don’t think it is right that the human population eagerly and rapidly applies any new scientific discoveries it wants for its own benefit — but when the same type of science methodology warns the citizens of Earth about dangerous future trends, the warnings are simply not heeded. Everyone procrastinates for decades. It’s like people are either not listening or not acting (or both).

Again? People are all too keen to adopts new finding, but only the ones that suit them.

So essentially, you want your cake and you want to eat it too.
And things won’t work that way in the long run… they can’t.

I studied materials science for example. And the world is obviously way too hooked on materialism. I believe that the only true ‘solution’ is to buy more services and less products. If you take one look in Bunnings for example, practically everything is made with non-renewable polymers. It’s literally depressing for someone like me to even look at. So I don’t ever go in there.

Half the plastic that is supposed to be recycled isn’t. Almost all synthetic polymers today are derived from crude oil. When the oil runs out, what then?

Certainly the products we do buy should be ‘eco’ wherever possible. But not even buying things made of sustainable materials is all that great a solution, because that still requires ever more land area. For example the corn crops needed to produce corn starch plastic. That is bad because it means more land-clearing. Native zones are forever being lost. So the problem is: where is all of this new corn going to be planted? We’re forgetting where all this ‘stuff’ comes from.

But worse that the materials problem is the biology problem. You know, the biologists in this world already know that human survival depends on other species, not the other way around. They don’t depend on us at all. We’re forgetting that. We’re getting too complacent. we’re even forgetting where all our oxygen is coming from. We’re forgetting all the work that insects and molluscs and crustaceans do for us…